Email Author Christian Schaeffer

2006 Stories by Christian Schaeffer

• Twanging Around

  published June 7, 2006

  When the social-networking Web site MySpace.com became a must-have promotional tool for bands, it signaled a... More >>

• Clumsy Lovers

  published May 31, 2006

  Jonathan Richman led the proto-punks in the Modern Lovers. Arto Lindsay gave us the avant-pop of the Ambitious Lovers. A Philadelphia power-pop... More >>

• Meat Purveyors

  published May 31, 2006

  The Meat Purveyors seem to fancy themselves the ABBA of the insurgent country circuit. As if the two guys/two gals lineup wasn't enough,... More >>

• The Trews

  published April 26, 2006

  I'm loathe to compare any modern rock act to the Band, but I'll give a qualified pass to Nova Scotia's the Trews. Few other acts from the... More >>

• Left of Center

  published April 5, 2006

  It's a few hours before show time at Chicago's Park West, and Centro-matic's Will Johnson is talking about his role in the Undertow Orchestra, an... More >>

• Adrian Belew

  published March 22, 2006

  It's tempting to talk about guitarist Adrian Belew only in terms of the company he has kept throughout the past 30 years. He's been a... More >>

• Rahim/Octopus Project

  published March 15, 2006

  For Ideal Lives, Rahim's full-length debut on French Kiss Records, the band drops the Gang of Four mimicry and veers toward... More >>

• Destroyer

  published March 8, 2006

  It's no surprise that a record called Destroyer's Rubies (as opposed to, you know, just Rubies) is endlessly self-referential to Dan... More >>

• Elvis Costello

  published March 1, 2006

  These are trying times for Elvis Costello fans. For every return-to-rock record, Costello seems contractually obligated to go soft. We convince... More >>

• Iguanas

  published March 1, 2006

  When the Iguanas hit St. Louis this week, Mardi Gras will be long gone, the debauched spirit of excess replaced by solemnity and... More >>

• The Damnwells

  published March 1, 2006

  Roots-rockers the Damnwells may have had their first taste of major-label compromise when Epic Records blanked out the title to their... More >>

• Matt Pond PA

  published February 22, 2006

  When the producers of the teen drama The O.C. need a little mood music for a closing montage or an emotional reunion, they call one band:... More >>

• Lucky Boys Confusion/Pomeroy

  published February 8, 2006

  Formed some nine years ago in sleepy Downers Grove, Illinois, Lucky Boys Confusion were just in time to get a few last rides on ska-punk's... More >>

• Shirock

  published February 1, 2006

  Chuck Shirock was born in Detroit, raised in Glasgow, spent time in the Philippines and currently lives in Nashville. But despite his... More >>

• Dave Insley and the Careless Smokers

  published January 25, 2006

  Fans of real country must get tired of these color-by-numbers outlaw bands, guys who put on tattered flannel and thrift-store boots and... More >>

• The Nields

  published January 25, 2006

  Somewhere between the vocational crisis that leads singers to think they're authors (Colin Meloy) and leads authors to believe they're singers... More >>